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林

Mandarin · pinyin lín#

(bound form) woods; forest
(bound form) circle(s) (i.e. specific group of people)
(bound form) a collection (of similar things)

Mandarin · pinyin Lín#

surname Lin
Japanese surname Hayashi

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Characters in this entry

林: lín · forest, grove; surname

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2 · lin2

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1character link50same-tone records

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lam4

Cantonese word readings for 林. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

character

forest; grove; woods
circle; community; group of similar people or things
forestry
a surname, commonly romanized as Lin, Lim, and Lam

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack